Prof. dr. E.M. Derks PhD

Position:

Professor

Main activities:

Research

Specialisation:

Genetics of Psychiatry

E.M. Derks is one of the AMC Principal Investigators

Focus of research:

Dr E.M. Derks (1975) has been named Professor by Special Appointment of Genetics in Psychiatry at the University of Amsterdam’s (AMC-UvA) Faculty of Medicine. The chair was designated on behalf of the Foundation Volksbond Rotterdam (Stichting Volksbond Rotterdam).

Eske Derks investigates the role of genetic factors in psychiatric conditions, including addiction, anxiety disorders, compulsive disorders and schizophrenia. She is interested in the wide variety of symptoms typical of patients with a psychiatric condition. Derks pays particularly close attention to the development of new statistical methods aimed at discovering associations between genetic variants and psychiatric conditions. The ultimate aim of her research is to fully identify the biological processes that result in a psychiatric condition, starting with the genetic mutation and ending with the psychiatric diagnosis.

Derks has been a university lecturer at the Psychiatric Department of the Utrecht University Medical Center since 2007. Before coming to Utrecht, Derks obtained her doctorate degree cum laude from the VU University Amsterdam and worked for some time as a post-doctoral researcher at the Wellcome Trust Center of Human Genetics in Oxford, UK. From October 2010 to April 2011, Derks was a visiting scientist at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Brisbane, Australia. In 2008 she was awarded a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research. Derks has published extensively in international journals including Molecular Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Bulletin and Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Verweij KHW. Does family matter? The impact of family history on phenomenology and IQ in patients with schizophrenia and their relatives. s.l.: s.n.; 2014. -p. Proefschrift Utrecht University, Medicine. (Promotor(s): Kahn RS, Derks EM; copromotor(s): Cahn W)

November 2007 - December 2011
Senior Researcher (0.88 fte, tenure position), Department of Psychiatry, Utrecht Medical Center, Utrecht.
The main research projects in which I am involved are:
- “Improvement of phenotyping in Genome Wide Association studies on schizophrenia: an application of Latent Class Factor Analysis”. (funded by NWO; 250,000 Euro)
I am the prinicipal investigator of this project. The main goal of the current proposal is to improve the assessment of individual differences in schizophrenia, and to incorporate these improved phenotypic assessments in subsequent Genome Wide Association analyses.
- “Genetic Risk and Outcome in Psychosis (GROUP)”
This is a longitudinal study on gene-environment vulnerability and resilience in both clinical and non-clinical populations which offers the opportunity to elucidate etiological and pathogenetic factors influencing the onset and course of psychotic disorders.
- “The European First Episode Schizophrenia Trial (EUFEST)”
I am the statistical advisor of this project. The aim of the European First Episode Schizophrenia Trial (EUFEST) is to compare treatment with amisulpride, quetiapine, olanzapine and ziprasidone to a low dose of haloperidol in an unselected sample of first episode schizophrenia patients with minimal prior exposure to antipsychotics.
- “Optimization of Treatment and Management of Schizophrenia in Europe (OPTiMiSE; funded by FP7; 11,800,000 Euro). I am the senior statistical consultant of this project. The main aim of this study is to optimise current treatments in schizophrenia and explore novel therapeutic options for schizophrenia.

October 2010 - April 2011
Visiting scientist, Department of Genetic Epidemiology, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Brisbane, Australia.
The aim of this visit was to collaborate with Prof. Dr. Peter Visscher and Dr. Naomi Wray on a study on the role of Copy Number Variants (CNVs) in mental retardation and schizophrenia. I discovered a novel region which is significantly enriched for large (>1Mb) CNVs in patients with mental retardation and schizophrenia compared to patients with mental retardation only. This work is not yet submitted for publication as the CNVs are currently verified based on PCR analysis but I expect that it will be submitted next month.

January 2007 - October 2007
Postdoc (0.8 fte, fixed term), Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. This postdoc project was a continuation of the research project which started in September 2006.

October 2006-December 2006
Postdoc (1 fte, fixed term), Department of statistical genetics, Wellcome Trust Center of Human Genetics, Oxford, United Kingdom. In collaboration with Prof. dr. L.R. Cardon and Dr. D.M. Evans, two experts in statistical genetics, I worked on a statistical innovation in Genome Wide Association studies, and developed a method to increase statistical power to detect a functional genetic variant by prediction of unobserved SNPs based on information from the HapMap sample

September 2006-October 2006
Postdoc (0.8 fte, fixed term), Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.
As part of this position, I collaborated with Prof. dr. M.C. Neale, and studied the psychometric
properties of a questionnaire that is used to assess smoking addiction: the Fagerström test for
nicotine dependence. This collaboration was continued in January, 2007.

September 2001-September 2006
AIO (0.8 fte, fixed term), Department of Biological Psychology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. The topic of the project was the exploration of genetic and environmental influences on Attention Problems and related childhood behavior problems, such as aggression and anxiety/depression.

- Promotor of PhD student (expected end date October 2014). Title project "Methodological aspects of genetic association studies"
- Promotor of PhD student (expected end date July 2014). Title project "Longitudinal trajectories of symptom dimensions in adolescents with a family history of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder"
- Promotor of PhD student (expected end date December 2011). Title project "The influence of familial loading on clinical characteristics of patients with schizophrenia and their relatives"
- Initiation and organization of a weekly Statistical Methods workgroup in which I teach a wide variety of statistical methods to master students and PhD students
- Teaching in genetics and methodology (courses "Genes and Behavior", "Genetic Methodology", and the "Mx workshop"

Genetics in Psychiatry

Overall aim of research
Individual differences exist in the risk to develop psychiatric disorders. I aim to understand which factors contribute to these individual differences; why is it that some people are psychiatrically much more vulnerable than others? We have moved beyond the nature-nurture debate, as it is now clear that both genetic and environmental factors contribute. However, we have not yet revealed the specific etiological pathways which lead to psychiatric disorders. The identification of genetic and environmental risk factors requires thorough investigation of clinical symptoms, neurobiological functioning, structural and functional brain assessments, and molecular biology. I aim to integrate research findings obtained at these different levels of complexity. My position at a department of psychiatry allows me to collaborate with psychiatrists and neuroscientists and to conduct interdisciplinary research that is needed to increase the understanding of highly complex, multifactorial disorders.

Research at UMCU (2007-2011)
At UMCU, my research was primarily supported by a VENI grant. The overall aim of this project was to investigate how phenotypic heterogeneity can be accounted for in gene finding studies. This has resulted in important findings; showing that disorganization symptoms in schizophrenia patients are most strongly associated with genetic variants and with progressive changes in brain volume provided important directions for future studies (Derks et al. 2012d; Derks et al. 2012a). Second, I have developed new statistical methods for detecting genetic variants. For example, genetic analyses which focus on chromosomal segments were shown to have increased statistical power compared to analyses which focus on the role of individual Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (Derks et al. 2012e). In total, the Veni project has resulted in 19 publications (8 first author, 2 last author, 9 co-author).

Research at AMC (2012-present)
In January 2012, I moved to the Academic Medical Center Amsterdam where I became professor of Genetics in Psychiatry. The main aim of my research group is to investigate the role of genetic factors in psychiatric conditions, including addiction, anxiety disorders, compulsive disorders, and schizophrenia. The focus of my research is on the development of new statistical methods aimed at discovering associations between genetic variants and psychiatric conditions. The ultimate goal is to study the biological processes which result in a psychiatric condition, starting with the genetic mutation with psychiatric diagnosis as the endpoint.